My Life In France

Author: Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme
ISBN: 1-4000-4346-8
Year Published: 2006
Date Read: 3/22/08
Why I Read This Book: I have an interest in cooking and have enjoyed and used Julia Child's cookbooks
Number of Pages: 302
File Under: Autobiography, France, cooking, Child

Comments: This book came to me from a dear friend who knew of my interest in cooking. After all, she had supped many times at our house and enjoyed hours of entertainment which often accompanied the meal.

I was first introduced to Julia Child through the spoofs of her cooking shows on Saturday Night Live. Even with that introduction, Julia Child seemed interesting. I happened to find some of her shows on Public Television as I travelled about. She was direct, fun, polite, no nonsense, and told a story with every recipe. Her food looked delicious and her descriptions allowed you to smell the meals through the TV screen. She loved teaching, she loved food, and you got the sense she loved life. My Life in France provides us with the background of Ms. Child's life which led to the cookbook which led to the cooking shows on Public Television in Boston which led to the spoofs on SNL.

The book was co-written with the grandson of the twin of her husband, Paul. Paul had died in 1994 after a long marriage to Julia. They had embarked together on a foreign services posting to Paris in 1948 after World War II. The couple enjoyed all that France and Paris had to offer. For Julia the food was a new sensation which she had never experienced. Her home, growing up, had been a meat and potatoes operation with little need or interest for innovation. When she hit France she ate sole meuniere for the first time and was hooked. She wanted to be able to experience this mouth based sensation over and over again.

She tells us about every wonderful sight, sound, and taste experienced by Julia. There are many superlatives used in this book. Everything is wonderful, most delightful, more beautiful than can be imagined, or tremendous. The book was written from Julia's memory and from snippets taken from the hundreds of letters sent by Paul to his twin brother while Julia and Paul were in France together. As of the writing of this book, Julia has lost Paul to the great beyond and she has been away from her home in France for over a decade. I do not begrudge the author for painting a plus positive picture of France. If perchance Julia only had wonderful memories then that is how the story should be told.

The underpaid couple set up a household in Paris in a centuries old building which had survived the War. Paul has been a fancier of good food and wine and has traveled more than Julia. As a result, Paul is always introducing Julia to new chefs, restaurants, and taste sensations. Julia is smitten but then wants nothing more than to learn about this great passion the French have for food. She wants to learn the artistry of the great chefs. She signs up for classes in Paris' Cordon Bleu school.

The experience there is not a very good one for Julia or for any women at that time. She does learn fundamental skills and makes friends. It appears that Julia made friends throughout her life and also managed to keep these friends for decades. She opens her own cooking school, on a small scale, in her apartment with good buddies Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. Simone and Louisette ask Julia to participate with them in writing the ultimate book on French cooking. My Life In France takes you through those many years in Julia's life from when she first landed in France (1948) through the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961) until Julia and her family shut down their home in the French countryside in 1992.

In the process, Julia and Paul receive different assignments in France and have to move from Paris to Marseille to Germany. By the time the couple is assigned to Germany, Julia, Simone and Louisette are well along their way in writing their book. Julia takes an all too scientific approach to defining the recipes. She has the task of converting the ingredients only found in Europe to American equivalents. That task is more than just changing metric measures to quarts and ounces but also involves trying to find American canned equivalents to many of the uniquely French foods found in their markets or on the wharf.

The book often reads like a travelogue but carries us through the entire process of writing (with two other authors) and then publishing a cook book unlike any other previously written. Once the cookbook is published and the trio of authors become a success, there is a demand for another book and Julia gets invited to start a cooking show on Public Television in Boston, which obtains its own success. The book tells us about Julia throughout her successful career. By the time My Life In France was published, Julia had died in 2004. Many personal details appear in the autobiogrpahy, so it appears that Julia poured much of her memories into the book. You can hear her voice when you turn each page.

There are many delightful aspects of this book. Julia met and feasted with almost all of the great chefs in France and in America. They shared their love for food, their recipes, and would cook for each other when they got together. One feast after another in recounted in mouth watering detail. Julia never went to or left a location in France without giving the greatest details of the colors, smells and tastes she experienced in each locale.

Paul was an accomplished photographer. The pictures appear grain by today's standards but they show the well trained eye of the journeyman shutterbug. His pictures are mostly of Julia so you get to see her grow up as a woman. The couple had a practice of sending Valentine cards to all of their friends with a posed photograph showing some aspect of their love. One such picture appears on the front of the book. Others are stuck deep inside. There is a lot of love in this book.

If you are hungry, read this book. If you have never experienced French food, read this book. If you have an interest in post-WWII France read this book. If you want to read an upbeat story about a treasure of a woman read this book.

Payback

Author: Thomas Kelly
ISBN: 0-679-45051-3
Year Published: 1997
Date Read: March 11, 2008
Why I Read This Book: It was on the bottom shelf of my library. It had not been read by anyone and I was in a revengeful mood.
Number of Pages: 273
File Under: Crime novel, New York City

Comments: Payback is the first attempt by author Thomas Kelly. It is self promoted as the poor man’s version of “Bonfire of the Vanities”. With a setting in New York City in the 1980’s, Kelly seeks to envelop you in the world of hard working Irish Americans in The City. The book is replete with every canned Irish stereotypical characteristic displayed in each character. It is true that there is no reference to “wee people”, the “Blarney Stone” and no one is dancing a jig, but you get the impression that Kelly is itching to place these items in his novel.
The story has three plots which meet nicely at the end. Little Billy is back from college (the first one in the family to go, everyone is very proud) and needs to make some money in case he gets accepted to law school. He returns each summer to be a sandhog, wherein he travels with other union employees beneath the earth of NYC to dig out a huge tunnel to carry water to the big city’s thirsty denizens. You may have seen the tunnel in one of the later “Die Hard” movies -I think it was the one entitled “Die Most Hardest”. Billy can make big cash and pay his way through school. Unfortunately, Billy’s Dad died in the tunnel and was its first victim. As of the printing on Kelley’s book, 23 people had died in the process of building the water tunnel. The conditions are atrocious and Kelley gives us every good reason for unions to remain in existence to protect those driven to earn but who still need to work safely. As it turns out the tunnel project has been sold to a union-busting corporate contractor who decides to show how he can turn a profit in the tunnel. He enlists the help of local mobs (yes the Irish mob and the Italian version). One of the hit man for the Irish bad guys is Paddy, Billy’s only brother. He is a former boxer with just one broken hand away from the big time. Paddy is not the chief just one of the minions in the gang. He dispatches foe and friend alike without looking back. Paddy’s boss is a sadistic louse of an individual.
For the first half of the book we are treated to descriptions of Paddy’s boss inventing increasingly violent ways to treat those he no longer likes. He is unfortunately depicted in other areas in too graphic a fashion by Kelly. Why do we need to know how happy the boss is after a trip to the bathroom? What is Kelly telling us about himself when he uses derogatory terms about women without any attribution to a character’s speech or thoughts? The crass depiction of the characteristics of the Irish folk is only outdone by the way in which Kelly portrays the Italians in the book. One of the Italians is a stoolie and he develops a relationship with his pregnant cop friend before he decides to check out. This is a book about hard work and toil and it attempts to give you a good sense of the cityscape and all of the competing influences therein.
Eventually, Paddy’s boss goes too far and Paddy, the numb killing machine, wakes up and decides his boss needs to be paid back. Paddy has to try to protect his brother before it is too late. I liked parts of the book. Those few descriptions of the bond between the brothers hit home as well as Kelly’s presentation of the desire to do whatever is necessary for one of your own. The story flows quickly enough but I think that was because of the lack of depth in Kelly’s retelling of the events of the 80’s. It is clear that his novel was well researched and that it dealt with some serious topics. For many, the portrayal of Irish people by Kelly will be right on target. As it appeared to me to be overdone, I found his writing distracting rather than enjoyable. It is Kelly’s first book. It is clear he has talent and should pursue this vocation. He has written two other books since the first. He might be worth a second read.

Tesla: Man Out of Time

Author: Cheney, Margaret
ISBN-10: 0-7432-1536-2
Year Published: 1981
Date Read: January, 2008
Why I Read This Book: I enjoyed the movie Coffee and Cigarettes which referenced him repeatedly in one of vignettes.
File Under: Character study

Comments: A very intriguing man, and a great biography that's careful not to dehumanize Tesla with myth and legend. The first chapter is just a sensational read, exciting and filled with wonder, which, like an album with an amazing opening track, the book never really recaptures in the chapters that follow.

It's a great character study of the evolution of young genius to unrecognized father of electricity. Tesla has gained cult figure status recently after being portrayed by David Bowie in The Prestige, referenced in the music of the White Stripes, the Red Alert games and in Coffee and Cigarettes, but the sad, old Tesla living out his days nursing pigeons in a hotel room is a part of the character you rarely see in modern references, and probably the more interesting and enduring character.

The curve of Tesla's life as portrayed by Margaret Cheney is that of a tragedy– his martyrdom for the pursuit of knowledge is anything but heroic. She does a fine job of balancing technical details with character description and evocative language. If only the rest of the book were as exciting as the beginning.

As an added bonus, here's video of Tesla as a "mad scientist" in an old Superman catoon.

Now and Then

Author: Robert B. Parker
ISBN: 978-0-399-15441-6
Year Published: 2007
Date Read: February 26, 2008
Why I Read This Book: Long time Spenser devotee.
File Under: Murder mystery, clever investigators, Boston
Pages: 296

Comments: 60 chapters and a typical Spenser book. For those who don’t know, Spenser is a private eye working out of Boston. He is an ex-cop and ex-fighter, a champion of English literature, and is in love with Susan. Each book presents a problem laced with trips to local restaurants in Boston at which Spenser and his dinner companion discuss the nuances and morality of his latest investigation. It’s not all fun and food. Each story has its own grit, sex, violence, twisted morality and mystery.

In this book Parker has brought in all of the old stories into one. A husband (he’s an FBI Special Agent) has asked Spenser to watch his wife who he suspects is having an affair. Not only is the wife enjoying time away from her marriage but her new bed partner has a hazy past and is associated with brokering guns and jobs for radical groups around the world. Just exactly how one acts as a broker for various radical groups is left out of this story. Spenser knows not of the FBI employment of the man hiring him nor of the gun-running propensities of the wife’s playmate when he takes the assignment. Spenser, master sleuth that he is, tails the trysting twosome and tapes torrid transfers of bodily fluids. Then things go very wrong and the soon-to-be divorcee ends up dead.

Spenser has a score to settle but it is never clear if he is evening up with the perpetrator in this story or if he is making up for action not taken in a Spenser tale from twenty years ago. Will Spenser avenge a long simmering but lost chance at revenge by crushing the current bad guy who resembles the maniac who stole away the extremely lovely Susan two decades previously? Is the story about now or then? Hawk, Chollo, and Vinnie are called up to provide cover for the princess while Spenser goes to Ohio to sleuth. All too friendly cops and agents look the other way while Spenser and his buds “anonymously” collect deal bodies like firewood. Spenser solves the case and gets his chance to exact his revenge.

Good story – quick read - all but done on the first leg of a flight to Denver. Unfortunately, if you do not recognize the names of any of the characters above you might not catch the value of having all of these characters in one story. I think Parker may be relying on his core readership to carry the day instead of plugging holes in his story. Those who have read Parker know more about all of these characters than is presented on the pages in this book. Loyal readers will paint in all of their prior knowledge of the characters to supplement the somewhat wanting storyline. It’s a buddy fest with Spenser pulling in all of his markers from cops and villains alike to subdue the mysterious bad guy. This antagonist recruits his worker bees from half-way houses using his background in psychology to create mindless devotees. Of course, the former winos pose no real threat to the professional cadre recruited by Spenser but why take any chances when Susan is being dangled as bait. Susan is a shrink and the bad guy, just to complicate matters, comes to her for help. He knows he is being pursued by Spenser and knows of the Spenser / Susan relationship. So he has his weekly session with Susan and tries to seduce her while Spenser is trying to solve the crime and tries to create the connection between the outlaw and the dead bodies accumulating around the city.

All of the story is told through conversation. Parker does this well. It is a gift. Even when Spenser is alone in his car, driving to and from Ohio, he talks with himself and goes over the day’s events. He wonders aloud about the mystery he is trying to solve and ponders the glorious mystery of his developing relationship with Susan.

Each Parker book comes with a special feature – a recipe. Parker tells us of the ingredients and means of preparation of at least one of the meals consumed by Spense, usually in his or Susan’s kitchen. All of the recipes are simple and use readily available ingredients. A wine recommendation is usually included in these meal time interludes.

Why did I read this book? This group of characters has been part of my collection of imaginary friends since 1985. I want to see the strong principles of Spenser work themselves out in his callous and spoiled world in which he must travel. Sure, I want truth and justice to prevail and I want Spenser’s nemesis to be caught. [There appears to be no lasting effect of Spenser’s work in Boston. Each book brings a new bad guy operating with total disdain of law and order – as if Spenser never existed.] However, why I really read the books is that I want to listen to the banter and pointed flirtatious discussions of Susan and Spenser. She always gets the better of him as she does have her PHD from Harvard. After these many years in deep love and having already tried unsuccessfully to live together, Susan and Spenser now are talking about marriage. True love glows off of each page. The thuggish knight protects and loves his princess. They discuss marriage but with the condition that they continue to live in separate quarters? They have one dog. What about the dog? I read the Spenser books for the righteously placed left hooks but for sure I dwell on the romance which bubbles to the surface in every other chapter. Entertaining, forceful, recommended, clever, realistic, not deep but not shallow.

NOTE: "Now & Then" is the title which shows up on the paper cover and on the spine of the book but the ampersand is not found in the text of the book.

Nature Girl

Author: Carl Hiaasen
ISBN: 978-0-446-58175-2
Year Published: 2006
Date Read: January 22, 2008
Why I Read This Book: I always like a little Hiaasen.
Number of pages: 304
File Under: Comic novel

Comments: I read this book on a trip back from Denver on Delta, in an ice storm. So the flight to Atlanta turned into a flight to Huntsville for more fuel. As we taxied out of Huntsville the back of the cabin filled with smoke and the Captain announced that we should not worry about the smoke, that he thought it would be okay, and that we should push on to Atlanta. The swift cabin attendants slipped into the bathrooms and disabled the smoke alarms. Nature Girl provided a necessary distraction.

I picked up the book at the Denver airport and had it finished before I got home the next day. Carl Hiaasen books are like chips. They are definitely crisp, salty and sure to provide a certain taste sensation with every crunch. However, you can eat too many so it’s best to keep the Hiaasen readings at least nine months apart. Read two in a row and you see the same patterns and quirky behavior in the new characters brought to each book.

Nature Girl has a library card listing of “Manic-Depressive Illness” as one of the subject tags. That’s because of Honey Santana. She has a precocious teenager (Fry), a not so estranged hunk of an ex-husband (Perry Skinner), and she has a tendency (common enough) to stay off of her medications for longer than prescribed. A crass cold calling phone solicitor rings during dinner and sets Honey off on a wandering wacky scheme to teach the telecommunicator a lesson about ecology, life and civility. He had called Honey a “dried up skank”. The solicitor is a philandering baboon at home in Texas and must be lured to Florida so Honey can carry forth her plan to even the score.

Honey’s son gets a hint that something is up when he comes home from school to find his mom painting the trailer to look like an “Eco-Lodge”. The telemarketer is reeled in with a promise of a weekend vacation in Florida. He brings his not so enamored and bored girlfriend. The two of them are tailed by an earnest private eye who is retained by the telemarketer’s wife to get close up coitus pictures. Meanwhile, Sammy Tigertail who is a man wrestling with alligators and his heritage, kidnaps a zonked out college girl on spring break in the Ten Thousand Islands National Refuge in Florida. A Mr. Piejack is of the opinion that Honey only wants him so he follows Honey, the telemarketer and the girlfriend in their kayak eco-adventure. All of the characters end up on Dismal Key for the climax to this cleverly written and entertaining tale. The story is packed with local Florida color and has an ending we all root for. No one gets it as close to perfect as Hiaasen in depicting the characters of our state. He has a great mix of scenes and careful story development. Our sympathies lie with Honey. We all want her to prevail in her scheme to set the world right by making sure the telemarketer never disturbs another family’s mealtime. Good book with a good ending. Thanks Mr. Hiaasen, keep them coming.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Author: J.K Rowling
ISBN: 978-0-545-01022-1
Year Published: 2007
Date Read: January 2-8
Why I Read This Book: Why did I read the book 3 times you mean? Because Harry Potter is a favorite of mine.
File Under: Magic, Fiction.

Comments: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is easily my favorite book out of the whole series. Like many other children, Harry Potter was my 'gateway' book into the world of reading, and is solely responsible for my failing grades throughout middle school.

Anyway, J.K Rowling did a beautiful job writing the 7Th book, carefully weeding out characters, and introducing new and important ones. The Deathly Hallows is the only book in which Harry Potter does not have his adventures during and at school, he sets off on his own to destroy the remaining Horcruxes with Ron and Hermione at his side. Dumbledore left him very little information after his death, and it is up to harry to save the Wizarding world as Voldemort rapidly gets stronger and takes over the ministry, and is slowly killing the Muggle race.

You might have seen, or been part of the controversy about whether not Snape is good, or evil. In the deathly hallows, Snape shows where he stands in a heart touching scene that involves Harrys mother. Filled with action and drama...this book is a hard one to put down! Of course, that's how I feel about any Harry Potter book, but that truly shows how incredibly involved one can become in a story. I also feel that J.K did an amazing job closing out the end of the book, it doesn't keep you yearning for more and makes it quite okay that there will be no more books added to the Harry Potter story.

Born Standing Up - A Comic's Life

Author: Martin, Steve
ISBN: 978-1416553649
Year Published: 2007
Date Read: 28 January 2008
File Under: Autobiography
Why did I read this book? It was a gift from my sister-in-law.
Number of pages: 207, with a large font and widely spaced lines (I guess he did not want two novellas in a row.)
Not recommended.

Comments: Why did Steve Martin write this book? I don't know. Why did I read this book? Steve martin was a hilarious hoot who created great self-deprecating comedy for many years (and my sister-in-law gave the book to me for Christmas). Why did I read this book all the way to the finish? I hoped it would get better. It did not.

I had heard that Shop Girl, also by Martin, was well written and reviewed. That is as close as I got. As my hair color reveals that I would have been young when Steve Martin was popular, the book appeared to be an appropriate gift for a man known for his own gags, now and then. I thought the book would be funny, insightful, entertaining, an escape from reality and filled with quality prose.

Why would you expect well written text from one successful at delivery of one-liners? When we watched Steve Martin, part of the humor was what we perceived was going on in his head. Why, for example, did he think he was a wild and crazy guy? We went along. Why did he wear that arrow thing? We ignored it along with him. When we so exercised our imagination about what was going on in the comedian’s head we filled in the blanks with our own willingness to find humor and to laugh. Steve Martin did not have to say too much. No long monologues – outlandish behavior for no apparent reason and street theater carried us along on riffs of laughter. We wanted to laugh and saw no reason to hold back. But this book. What happened?

Okay, so it is his biography (and who has not wondered whether the tale of one’s life would be interesting to others) and he did not get along with his Dad. He liked his Mom. You never get the impression that anyone in the family has a big heart pumping out tons of love. There were no hugs, group or otherwise, going on in Southern California when Steve was growing up. If you are looking for profound introspection, it ain’t in this book. If you want insight into the human condition, go reread The Good Earth. If you want to find out about Steve Martin, the bio on Wikipedia is likely more interesting and you can see the end of the article without scrolling down too much.

Born Standing Up provides you with information about every job held by Steve Martin, his companions of the female persuasion, and celebrities cresting in popularity at the same time as this comedian. Maybe it was cathartic for Steve Martin to write the book. Maybe the scene of Steve Martin saying goodbye to his father on his death bed was meant to mean more, but the emotion evoked here was as shallow as a one-liner. I do not mean to detract at all from Steve Martin’s genius. It just does not show up on these pages.

Some other comedian has a rave blurb on the back of the book. I suspect he read other reviews, has spent too much time reading Superman, and that he never opened this book. Pedantic, plodding, dull, dry, narrowly focused, mildly entertaining, historical, mercifully short, sleeping pill, tinder. Steve Martin deserves a better biography.